Issue 847 - 13 February 2009

UAE’s US ties flourish as Emirates seek to become a different kind of US ally

The UAE has deliberately stepped up its rhetoric to support US policy in the region while the Obama administration is settling in and preparing to receive its first briefings on Centcom’s region-wide assessment of Gulf policy. Personal and collaborative technology relations between the two militaries have become very close, even on such thorny policy issues as Iran’s nuclear programme.

Canvassing by GSN of US Central Command (Centcom) planners suggests that the bilateral Gulf Security Dialogue meetings held every six months have witnessed a dramatic tightening of military to military ties between the United Arab Emirates and United States, from military/technical areas such as missile defence to the political/military issue of forging a united front on Iran’s nuclear programme. This takes an already strong relationship into a new phase: the drama of the Dubai Ports World (DPW) fiasco – when US legislators blocked an official UAE investor from buying P&O’s American ports on national security grounds – seems light years away.

Indeed, friendly relations have been significantly helped by the robust US military defence of the UAE’s bona fides during the DPW affair, which has not been forgotten. The Pentagon stepped up to the plate as congressmen were digging their claws into Dubai, with Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Peter Pace gushing that “the military-to-military relationship with the United Arab Emirates is superb… They’ve got airfields that they allow us to use, and their airspace, their logistics support. They’ve got a world-class air-to-air training facility that they let us use and co-operate with them in the training of our pilots. In everything that we have asked and work with them on, they have proven to be very, very solid partners.” Retired former Centcom commander-in-chief General Tommy Franks told Congress, “I personally believe that we have had no greater ally in seeking a resolution of problems in the Middle East, the Palestinian issue, the Israeli issue, than we have found in the United Arab Emirates.” Then Centcom head General John Abizaid said “the UAE is absolutely vital to our interests” and angrily told legislators that the DPW dispute was “nothing but Arab and Muslim-bashing that is totally unnecessary.”

Since then the Pentagon and the UAE’s defence industry lobbyists – such as the Lexington Institute’s influential Loren Thompson – have maintained the pace. The UAE’s impressive record of support to extra-regional peacekeeping forces has been lauded in the defence press, from its early support to peace-keeping in Lebanon to later deployment of troops to support US missions in Somalia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, not to mention the UAE’s politic offer of assistance during Hurricane Katrina. The Pentagon greatly values access to Al-Dhafra airbase in Abu Dhabi, which functions as the most reliable regional base for US intelligence-gathering aircraft such as the U-2s and Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles of the US Air Force (USAF)’s 380th Air Expeditionary Wing (AEW).

Air force co-operation: the jewel in the crown

The jewel in the crown continues to be the warm bilateral relationships that have formed between the USAF and UAE Air Force and Air Defence (UAEAFAD). GSN’s contacts in the USAF’s International Affairs division now confidently state that the relationship is the closest enjoyed by the USA with any regional air force, including Israel’s.

UAEAFAD has come a long way in a short time due to US assistance. Originally comprising the Abu Dhabi Air Force and Dubai Air Wing, the united force was formed between 1976 and 1993. Although Abu Dhabi officers call the shots, and the oil-rich emirate has bankrolled the majority of assets (including all advanced combat aircraft and helicopters), UAEAFAD is moving towards true integration of personnel from all the emirates. Most importantly, it is on the cusp of transiting from a typical Gulf Arab air force – understaffed, over-equipped and lacking credibility – into a genuine fighting force that will have no equal in the Gulf, or at least so its USAF partners believe.

The USA has been wrong before – recalling the over-optimistic build-up of Saudi forces after Operation Desert Storm – but there are strong reasons to believe the USAF may be right this time. The Saudis never aspired to build anything more ambitious than a very large and powerful late 20th century air force, while the Emiratis have a very different vision – of a future UAEAFAD with the potential to be the best trained, equipped and structured air force in the Gulf. Strong and growing bonds with the US defence industry and USAF leadership are the means to achieve this end, and have been carefully tended by the UAE’s political leaders. Indeed, US military flag officers (generals and admirals) are seen by the UAE leadership as the most stable and reliable interlocutors, due to the United States’ failure to empower a strong and stable civilian envoy to the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC).

Collaborative design

Collaborative development is the other type of ‘glue’ holding together the relationship, along with personal ties. Through collaborative technological deals, manpower and infrastructure development, and local industry involvement, the UAE is taking strong steps to develop an indigenous defence industry and a portfolio of investments in key defence technologies. The UAE is the most advanced and assertive GCC state in the field of defence procurement, and will soon be able to punch well above its weight due to the leverage that smart procurement is lending to its sustained $3bn annual defence expenditure.

In working so closely with the US aviation industry to input both its requirements and capital into research and design, the UAE has taken a leaf out of Shah-era Iran’s experience as a US military ally, albeit with important differences. In the 1970s, the Iranians purchased huge numbers of aircraft, securing as many planes as possible, as soon as possible. Once these were delivered and the first generation of manpower needed for them trained, the second phase aimed to develop an industrial basis that would support and eventually improve the previously purchased hardware. This development was initiated in the mid-1970s with the building of facilities capable of refurbishing aircraft and helicopters, as well as providing spare parts and ammunition, to ensure a degree of independence from the USA. The Iranians supported and financed such projects like the P.530 Cobra/YF-17 Hornet, vital early versions of the platforms later known as the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon and the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet. Missiles systems such as the AGM-65 Maverick, a mainstay of the 1990s US military, were designed for the Iranian market and using Iranian capital. By the time of the Islamic Revolution, the world’s largest McDonald Douglas (now Boeing) plants were located in Iran.

Towards becoming a defence industrial power

The UAE is embarking on a similar journey, albeit with far better prospects of reaching the lucrative second stage when the Emirates become a defence industrial power in their own right. The UAE’s collaborative design began in the 1980s, when GEC-Marconi-Dynamics (now Alenia-Marconi Systems) built the Al-Hakim stand-off weapons series – the PGM-1 (a 500lb rocket-assisted laser-guided bomb) and PGM-2 (a 2,000lb rocket-powered, television-guided bomb) – to UAE requirements. A combined total of 416 weapons were delivered under the programme in 1992-98. More recently, the UAE fed over $2bn of investment into the Northrop Grumman AN/APG-80 active electronically scanned array radar, which equips not only the UAE’s 80 Block 60 F-16 aircraft but also the next generation of USAF fighters.

An early indication of the potential for a UAE aviation sector design bureau can be found in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market. In 2006, the UAEAFAD ramped up its surveillance and reconnaissance (S&R) programme, focusing on training and developing an engineering corps, and building indigenous products. According to Major Ali Al-Shehi, the group’s aim was “to train and build a pool of engineers to work in our S&R programmes, particularly the production and maintenance of unmanned aerial vehicles.” In the near term, the UAE-based Gulf Aircraft Maintenance Company (Gamco) is developing a range of indigenous short-range UAV designed to closely match UAE requirements.

For more long-range operations, the UAE will look to the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk as a platform, and can be expected to modify the system to carry European sensor payloads that the United States may be unwilling to supply. The Global Hawk’s long endurance will allow it to mount almost constant surveillance of the UAE coastline, providing real-time imagery of maritime and aerial movements, with the ability to zoom in and image an area with high-resolution European synthetic aperture radar. Indeed, the UAE’s willingness to mix and match US platforms with European weapons – notably long-range air-launched cruise missiles – may be wearing down the congressional block that often precludes US weapons sales. As one USAF source told GSN, “we are increasingly going to Congress and saying, ‘If we don’t sell it to [the UAE], someone else will’.”